{"id":13928,"date":"2026-01-16T23:02:51","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T06:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bond-lowered-for-cortez-woman-suspected-in-daughters-death\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:42:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:42:35","slug":"bond-lowered-for-cortez-woman-suspected-in-daughters-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bond-lowered-for-cortez-woman-suspected-in-daughters-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Bond lowered for Cortez woman suspected in daughter\u2019s death"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rachel
Rachel Leonard<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Chief Judge Todd J. Plewe on Friday reduced the bond for Rachel Leonard, a Cortez woman charged with first-degree murder in the 2022 death of her 5-year-old daughter, Annika Sandoval.<\/p>\n

The judge cited newly disclosed genetic tests that he said the grand jury should have known about.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is, I am not here to decide today whether she is guilty or not guilty, whether she committed this crime or not,\u201d Plewe stated from the bench. He made his ruling, noting it was not a finding on guilt and said Leonard will have her day in court.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis genetic testing is quite compelling. But I can tell you this, this is information the grand jurors would have wanted to hear,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The ruling came after a lengthy bond hearing Friday morning that drew a packed courtroom, with supporters from both Leonard\u2019s family and Annika\u2019s paternal side.<\/p>\n

Leonard\u2019s bond was lowered from $2 million to $250,000 cash or surety and includes GPS monitoring. Leonard cannot leave the county without a court order.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a judge, it\u2019s hard to go back and determine what grand jurors would have decided with this genetic testing,\u201d Plewe said, noting he had briefly Googled the results during the hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on my Google searches, this makes the case very interesting and very difficult,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

New tests are prosecution\u2019s nightmare, defense claims<\/div>\n

For about 45 minutes, Colorado Public Defender John Moran argued his client\u2019s bond should be adjusted to reflect the new genetic results, which emerged in the state\u2019s discovery this week.<\/p>\n

Three markers were identified \u2013 PIK3R2, VWF and KCNA5 \u2013 which, he said, could be associated with seizure disorders or cardiac-related triggers causing sudden, unexplained death.<\/p>\n

\u201cSudden, unexplained death in a child is real, and metabolic testing is necessary in cases like this. You can hear my frustration that this testing is happening four years into this case,\u201d Moran said.<\/p>\n

According to the Aug. 22 grand jury indictment, Leonard intentionally caused her daughter\u2019s death. Annika was found unresponsive March 29, 2022, inside a bedroom in the extended family\u2019s Cortez home. The medical examiner listed the cause and manner of death as \u201cundetermined.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moran told the court Friday that further genetic testing was recommended by the prosecution\u2019s own expert pathologist, Michael Arnall, as far back as October.<\/p>\n

He said the prosecution\u2019s theory relies on suffocation, despite the autopsy showing no physical injuries typically associated with that cause of death.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are significant wounds you would see \u2013 signs of facial trauma, bruising, petechial hemorrhaging, pressure application,\u201d he said, arguing those findings were not present in the autopsy.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the defense\u2019s own forensic pathologist, Moran argued, told them \u201cin colorful language\u201d that these new findings were significant, showing heart arrhythmia or a seizure disorder as potential causes.<\/p>\n

Moran said if grand jurors had known about the genetic testing, Leonard would not have been indicted. \u201cThis is a nightmare for the prosecution\u2019s case,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Continuing his argument, the defense attorney added Leonard\u2019s family reported a history of heart issues, including relatives who died from heart attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the dust settles on this,\u201d Moran said, \u201cAnnika\u2019s last moments were not violent acts at the hands of her mother \u2026 but that she died peacefully in her sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prosecutor urges caution, cites seriousness of charge<\/div>\n

Before the prosecutor argued on bond, three members of Annika\u2019s paternal family spoke: her grandfather Victor Sandoval, her aunt Brittany Martinez and a close cousin addressed the court.<\/p>\n

They grew emotional while discussing immeasurable loss and tragedy, asking that Leonard\u2019s bond stay at $2 million and explaining they felt there were severe consequences if she were allowed out on home detention.<\/p>\n

District Attorney Jeremy Reed then argued it was too early to draw conclusions from the genetic testing.<\/p>\n

When asked by Plewe whether he had spoken with Arnall, Reed said he had not. Reed explained the prosecution received the results earlier in the week and had not yet secured expert review.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what level of significance to assign this,\u201d Reed said.<\/p>\n

Reed argued the court should consider the age of the victim, the nature of the charge and Leonard\u2019s movement between different family residences across states. He said the home Leonard would return to includes witnesses connected to the case. The prosecutor argued that while she hadn\u2019t previously fled, it did not guarantee Leonard would not do so in the future.<\/p>\n

Reed pointed to the autopsy\u2019s finding of \u201cmild cerebral edema\u201d \u2013 meaning swelling of the brain \u2013 and argued this indicated suffocation.<\/p>\n

Leonard\u2019s next court appearance is a plea hearing scheduled for Feb. 13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

genetic testing is compelling, stresses ruling not a finding on guilt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29,994],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13928"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19234,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13928\/revisions\/19234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13928"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}